Provided is a semiconductor device that comprises a metal gate having a low sheet resistance characteristic and a high diffusion barrier characteristic and a method of fabricating the metal gate of the semiconductor device. The semiconductor device includes a metal gate formed on a gate insulating film, wherein the metal gate is formed of a metal nitride that contains al or Si and includes upper and lower portions where the content of al or Si is relatively high and a central portion where the content of al or Si is relatively low.
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1. A semiconductor device comprising:
a metal gate formed on a gate insulating film,
wherein the metal gate is formed of a metal nitride containing al or Si and comprises upper and lower portions where the content of al or Si is relatively high and a central portion where the content of al or Si is relatively low, and
the lower portion directly contacts the gate insulating film on a semiconductor substrate.
8. A method of fabricating a semiconductor device, comprising:
forming a gate insulating film on a semiconductor substrate; and
forming a metal gate on the gate insulating film,
wherein the metal gate is formed of a metal nitride containing al or Si and comprises upper and lower portions where the content of al or Si is relatively high and a central portion where the content of al or Si is relatively low, and
the lower portion directly contacts the gate insulating film on the semiconductor substrate.
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7. The semiconductor device of
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This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2007-0090553, filed on Sep. 6, 2007, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device and a method of fabricating a metal gate of the semiconductor device, and more particularly, to a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) device having a low sheet resistance characteristic and a high diffusion barrier characteristic and a method of fabricating a metal gate of the CMOS device.
2. Description of the Related Art
A complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) device formed to be complementarily operated includes a p-channel metal oxide semiconductor (PMOS) transistor and an n-channel metal oxide semiconductor (NMOS) transistor. Such CMOS devices have increased efficiency and operation speed and also can have characteristics similar to a bipolar transistor. Thus, the CMOS devices are used as high speed and high performance devices.
In the prior art, a gate of a CMOS device is formed by forming a polysilicon doped to identical type to each channel on a gate insulating film (or a gate oxide film), for example, formed of silicon oxide SiO2. For example, a gate of the PMOS transistor is formed using polysilicon doped with a P-type dopant, and a gate of the NMOS transistor is formed using polysilicon doped with an N-type dopant. However, due to the high integration of the semiconductor devices, thicknesses of thin films in the semiconductor devices are gradually reduced. Thus, as the thickness of the conventional SiO2 thin film used as a gate insulating film is reduced, the leakage current is increased due to tunneling, and thus, power consumption of the CMOS device exceeds a standard value.
In order to address the above problems, studies have been conducted on developing a high dielectric (high-k) oxide film that can realize a gate insulating film electrically having a thickness identical to an equivalent oxide film thickness and physically having a thickness greater than a thickness that does not cause tunneling. As a result, SiO2 has been replaced with a high-k material such as HfO2 or Al2O3. However, when the high-k material is used as the gate insulating film, impurities included in the doped polysilicon formed on the gate insulating film are diffused into the gate insulating film.
Therefore, in order to address the diffusion problem, recently, studies have been conducted to use a metal as the gate instead of the doped polysilicon. The metal gate is also believed to decrease the high sheet resistance problem of conventional polysilicon. However, if a pure metal is used to obtain low sheet resistance, the diffusion problem still remains. Thus, attempts to use a metal compound such as TiN or TaN instead of a pure metal have been conducted. However, TiN and TaN are easily oxidized since TiN and TaN are highly oxidative. Also, problems of thermal stability and diffusion into the gate insulating film still remain.
To address the above and/or other problems, the present invention provides a method of fabricating semiconductor device, in particular, a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) having a low sheet resistance characteristic and a diffusion barrier characteristic.
The present invention also provides a semiconductor device, in particular, a CMOS device comprising a metal gate that has a low sheet resistance characteristic and a diffusion barrier characteristic.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a semiconductor device comprising a metal gate formed on a gate insulating film, wherein the metal gate is formed of a metal nitride containing Al or Si and comprises upper and lower portions where the content of Al or Si is relatively high and a central portion where the content of Al or Si is relatively low.
The metal nitride that comprises Al or Si may be one selected from the group consisting of TiAlN, TaSiN, and TaAlN.
The content of Al or Si may gradually decrease from the lower portion to the central portion of the metal gate, and the content of Al or Si may gradually increase from the central portion to the upper portion of the metal gate.
The content of Al or Si may decrease in a stepwise manner from the lower portion to the central portion of the metal gate, and the content of Al or Si increases in a stepwise manner from the central portion to the upper portion of the metal gate.
The content of Al or Si in the lower portion and the upper portion of the metal gate may be in a range from 30 to 40 at %, and the content of Al or Si in the central portion of the metal gate may be in a range from 0 to 20 at %.
The metal gate may be formed using an atomic layer deposition (ALD) process, and the content of Al or Si in the metal gate may be controlled by controlling the ratio of deposition cycle of the ALD process.
The semiconductor device may be a CMOS device that comprises a PMOS transistor and an NMOS transistor that respectively may comprise metal gates having work functions different from each other.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of fabricating a semiconductor device, comprising: forming a gate insulating film on a semiconductor substrate; and forming a metal gate on the gate insulating film, wherein the metal gate is formed of a metal nitride containing Al or Si and comprises upper and lower portions where the content of Al or Si is relatively high and a central portion where the content of Al or Si is relatively low.
If the metal gate is formed of TiAlN, the metal gate may be formed by alternately depositing a TiN layer and an AlN layer using an ALD process, and the content of Al in the metal gate may be controlled by controlling the ratio of deposition cycle of the TiN layer to the AlN layer.
The TiN layer may be deposited using Ti[N(CH3)2]4 as a precursor and a plasma applied NH3 gas as a reaction gas by an ALD process, and the AlN layer may be deposited using Al(CH3)3 as a precursor and a plasma applied NH3 gas as a reaction gas by an ALD process.
The above and other features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent by describing in detail exemplary embodiments thereof with reference to the attached drawings in which:
A semiconductor device that includes a metal gate having a low sheet resistance characteristic and a diffusion barrier characteristic according to the present invention and a method of fabricating the metal gate of the semiconductor device will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings in which exemplary embodiments of the invention are shown.
The PMOS transistor includes an N-type well layer 13, a gate insulating film 19 formed on a central upper surface of the N-type well layer 13, a metal gate 20 formed on the gate insulating film 19, and a drain 15 and a source 16 which are respectively doped with a P+ dopant and formed in either side of the gate insulating film 19 on the N-type well layer 13. The NMOS transistor includes a P-type well layer 14, a gate insulating film 21 formed on a central upper surface of the P-type well layer 14, a metal gate 22 formed on the gate insulating film 21, and a drain 17 and a source 18 which are respectively doped with an N+ dopant and are formed in both sides of the gate insulating film 21 on the P-type well layer 14.
The gate insulating films 19 and 21 can be formed of a high dielectric material such as HfO2 or Al2O3. Alternatively, the gate insulating films 19 and 21 can be formed in a multiple layer structure that includes a high dielectric material layer and a SiO2 layer.
If a metal is used as a gate in the CMOS device 10 having the above structure, gate metals respectively having work functions different from each other are used in the PMOS transistor and the NMOS transistor in order to achieve a desired level of threshold voltages of the PMOS transistor and the NMOS transistor. Generally, it is preferable that the metal gate 20 of the PMOS transistor have a work function higher than that of the metal gate 22 of the NMOS transistor. For example, it is appropriate that the metal gate 20 of the PMOS transistor has a work function of 4.9 eV, and the metal gate 22 of the NMOS transistor has a work function of 4.2 eV. In particular, the present invention is to obtain a low sheet resistance characteristic and a high diffusion barrier characteristic in the metal gate 20 of the PMOS transistor that has a relatively high work function.
In order to achieve the above purposes, a structure of a metal gate according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown in
As described above, a metal nitride such as TiN or TaN has been conventionally used for fabricating a metal gate. However, there are problems in that the metal nitride is readily oxidized due to highly oxidativeness of the metal nitride, is thermally instable, and diffuses into the gate insulating film. A metal nitride thin film that contains an atom, for example, Al or Si having small in size, such as TiAlN thin film, a TaSiN thin film, or a TaAlN thin film, is used in actual semiconductor processes as a diffusion barrier for preventing the diffusion of the metal nitride into a gate insulating film. However, the metal nitride thin film such as the TiAlN thin film, the TaSiN thin film, or the TaAlN thin film has high sheet resistance. The present invention is to prevent the metal nitride from being diffused into the gate insulating film by using a metal nitride material having a high diffusion barrier characteristic at interfaces 34a and 34c of the metal gate 34, and to secure a low sheet resistance characteristic by using a metal nitride having low sheet resistance in a central portion of the metal gate 34.
The metal gate 34 having the above structure can be formed using, for example, an atomic layer deposition (ALD) process by controlling the ratio of Al or Si. For example, in the case of forming the metal gate 34 using TiAlN, the TiAlN layer can be formed by alternately depositing a TiN layer and an AlN layer using an ALD process. At this point, the content of Al in the TiAlN layer can be controlled by controlling the ratio of deposition cycle of the TiN layer to the AlN layer. More specifically, the TiN layer can be deposited layer by layer by an ALD process using TDMAT(Ti[N(CH3)2]4) as a precursor and a plasma applied NH3 gas as a reaction gas. The AlN layer can be deposited layer by layer by an ALD process using TMA(Al(CH3)3) as a precursor and a plasma applied NH3 gas as a reaction gas. At this point, the content of Al in the TiAlN layer can be controlled by controlling the ratio of deposition cycle of the TiN layer to the AlN layer in the ALD process.
Then, the content of Al in the metal gate 34 formed of TiAlN can be gradually reduced from the lower portion 34a to the central portion 34b of the metal gate 34, and the content of Al in the metal gate 34 can be gradually increased from the central portion 34b to the upper portion 34c of the metal gate 34. Instead of gradually changing the content of Al in the metal gate 34, the content of Al in the metal gate 34 can be changed in a stepwise manner such that the content of Al in the lower portion 34a, the central portion 34b, and the upper portion 34c can be clearly distinguished. For example, the content of Al (Al/(Al+Ti)) in the lower portion 34a and the upper portion 34c of the metal gate 34 can be in a range from 30 to 40 at %, and the content of Al (Al/(Al+Ti)) in the central portion 34b of the metal gate 34 can be in range from 0 to 20 at %. These ratios can also be applied when TaSiN or TaAlN is used instead of TiAlN.
In this manner, if a small Al atom or a Si atom is included in TiN or TaN, the Al atom or the Si atom can enter a lattice of TiN or TaN without changing the lattice shape of TiN or TaN. Thus, the low sheet resistance characteristic at the central portion 34b of the metal gate 34 can be maintained by not including Al or Si, and the diffusion barrier characteristic can be increased at the lower portion 34a and the upper portion 34c of the metal gate 34 by increasing Al or Si.
Also, the metal gate 34 according to an embodiment of the present invention can increase thermal stability as compared to a conventional metal gate. In order to prove the thermal stability of the metal gate 34, the thermal stability test was performed by manufacturing a TiAlN metal gate specimen (specimen 1) in which Al is uniformly distributed and a TiAlN metal gate specimen (specimen 2) according to an embodiment of the present invention. The specimen 1 has a thickness of approximately 200 Å and has an Al content (Al/(Al+Ti)) of approximately 14.9 at %. The specimen 2 also has an overall thickness of approximately 200 Å in which a lower portion and an upper portion respectively have a thickness of approximately 50 Å and a central portion has a thickness of approximately 100 Å. The Al content (Al/(Al+Ti)) in the lower portion and the upper portion was approximately 45 at %, and that of the central portion is approximately 0 at %. An average Al content in the specimen 2 was approximately 19.8 at %, which is greater than that of the specimen 1.
In order to measure a work function of the metal gate 34 according to an embodiment of the present invention, as depicted in
Thus, it can be seen that the metal gate 34 according to the present invention can be applied to a metal gate for a PMOS transistor of a CMOS device 10 that requires high work function. Also, the metal gate 34 according to the present invention can be applied to a gate of all semiconductor devices that require high work function in addition to the PMOS transistor of a CMOS device. For example, if the metal gate 34 is used in a metal gate of a flash memory, the electron injection phenomenon that occurs in a gate of the flash memory can be improved, and thus, a data retention characteristic of a flash memory can be increased.
According to the present invention, low sheet resistance of a metal gate can be secured in a central portion of the metal gate where, for example, a TiAlN thin film having a low Al content is formed, and a high diffusion barrier characteristic of the metal gate can be secured at interfaces of the metal gate where, a TiAlN thin film having a high Al content is formed. Accordingly, in a semiconductor device, in particular, in a CMOS device, a metal gate having both low sheet resistance and high diffusion barrier characteristic can be provided.
While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the following claims.
Park, Sung-ho, Noh, Jin-seo, Jeon, Joong S.
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